Ball valve



Jan. 19, 1965 D. c. JENNINGS BALL VALVE Filed Bed. 12, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR DA VID JENNINGS AGENT:

Jan. 19, 1965 D. c. JENNINGS BALL VALVE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 12, 1961 FIG. 7

a wvd I! DA VID AGENT BALLVALVE cerporation of Delaware 7 7 Filed Dec. 12, 1951,8121. No.158fi3t3 1 Claim. (ca. 137-62545 i This invention relates to valve construction and particularly to improvement for ball-type, multi-positional, multiport valves.

It is an object of this invention to providefinia valve construction of the type described a sphericalball valve member supported by a plurality of combined hearing and seal members. Q

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a combined seal and bearing annular member surrounding the ports disposed within the inner wall of the valve housing about the longitudinal axis of the rotating ball member, wide enough to shut oil? the ports between adjacent operating positions. i v a It still is a further object of this invention to;construct the valve housingin such a manner that the parting plane does not intersect any of the sealing members so as not to interfere with sealing and to afford easy accessibility for assembly and disassembly reasons.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide in a valve as described a construction which is being characterized as being relatively inexpensive. to manufacture, highly reliable, while affording a high ability to seal yet capable ofbeing put through rugged use. a

it is still a further object of this invention to provide in the valve as described the combined functions of valve closure andopening for interconnecting more than two ports formed in the housing. The valve is capable of per- 1961 assigned to the same assignee is an example of where my invention finds particular utility. In this particular system, some of the paths which the valve must direct fluid llow is connected to vacuum. Tests have been conducted to determine the ability of the valve to seal fluid from adjacent substantially vacuum areas and-thesetests indicated that the amount ofleakage' evidenced around eachseal was negligible. I

These and other objects of thisinvention willxbecome readily apparent from the detailed description of the drawings in which: I

FIGURE 1 is an assembled perspective view of the valve. 7

FIGURE 2 is an exploded view in perspective of FIG. 1;

I United States Patent V V p gdhbd Patented Jan. 119, 1

l'ce

by numeral 20. For illustration purposes but by no rr by way of limitation, the valve described hereinbelc a three-position, four-port valve, having a blocking" for converting the valve to a three-positionjthree valve. The blocking plate 22 'is merely illustrate show the simplicity required to convert the valve frt I four-port to athree-port valve. The valve plate ma mounted to the valve housing by a plurality of sect screw members 24. V

In its illustrated embodiment, each casing is forme define a hollow section taking the general shape of half of a rectangular parallel-piped so that upon'as bling both casings, the two halves form 'a rectang parallelepiped shaped cavity portion for receiving the like member'Ze, although in its preferred embodimen passageways (not shown). A recess surrounding eac the ports is formed in the inner surface of the housing 1 receiving the I dual function seal and bearing membe seat 34. The annularly/ shaped seats incorporate a cave spherical surface complementing the spherical pheral surface formed ,on the ball member 26. M

such as Orings or springs, generally indicated by nun 36, surrounding the seat may be disposed between seat and inner wall of the housing forcing the seat-to against theball, or alternatively the seat rnay be posed of a sufficiently resilient material to make auxiliary springs unnecessary. A boss extending-tron seat on the back side supports one portion ofthe sm 0 ring. This assures that the seat adequately con the ball at a sutficient pressure level. so. as to" obtain. quatesealing; A shaft 37 extending centrally from ball member protrudes through the casing so that r( movement imparted thereto. will control the angular j tion of the ball and therefore interconnect thefvai FEGURE 3 is a cross-sectional View taken along the sectional line 3-3 of FIG. 1. 7

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of the combined bearing and seal member. 7 V

FIGURE 5 'isa side elevation of the combined-bearing and seal member.

FlGURE 6 is a sectional view illustrating a second preferred embodiment.

FIGURE 7 is a sectional view taken along line 77 of FIG. 6. i 7

Referring to FIGURES .1 through'S, the valve housing 1 is formed by two outer casingsltl and 12 each carrying inner flange members 14 and 15 respectively. A plurality of h les are formed in the flange for receiving adequate securing members such as nut and bolt assembly'16. A plurality of ports are formed in the housing as indicated ports or shut them off. The spacing between the sageways on the peripheral surface of the ball is sufiit to afford adequatesealing contact between the ope 35 formed in the'seat and the spherical surface of the when the ball 'is-in the position intermediate between 'ne'cting adjacent ports in'the housing." Itwill he reaf either a unidirection or oscillated.

The seats maybe made from any adequate mat such as Teflon, buna N, neoprene, metal, etc. The n rial selected should employ a degree oflcompressil and resilience so that when contacting the spherical face of theball, it will fit closely to the same to prc adequate sealing characteristics. Materials such as n ,which do not exhibit the same degree of .compressil as the othermaterials mentioned would necessitate use of a backup springer O ring as described abm provide the proper snugness that the seal must. hai

. vention, and since details and'functio'ns are substant identical to thestructure shown in FEGURES 1 throu; for convenience the detailed description the'reof wil omitted. In the. interests of saving jweight and cos V. a i 7 3,166,098

3 a vice described in the foregoing, much of the struc- ;hown in connection with these aforementioned'figmay be cast as opposed to machined. The only ling requirement might be in forming the spherical of the wall, the recesses for the seats, the mating )f the casinghalves and the shaft fitting. Synthetic would not necessarily require "a machining-operw )ut 'a metallic seal on the other handwould. As

the ball comprising hub 50 contains radiallyexg supporting webs 52 supporting the'spherical peal surface 54 of the ball. The supporting'websare :l to define passages 58 and 60 in the rotating ball er 56. As noted from the drawing, the seat 62 is rted in the recess formed in the housing 64 Exg conduit connections 66 may be formed integrally he housing as desiredl Asnoted in the drawings,- at does not employ backup springs as-was disclosed BURES 1 through but here again such provision be dependent on the particular application; Owing l sealing characteristics as provided by thisinven: 'urther reduction of weight and cost are realized by .ating the material forming .the end closures of the' 1g; The face of the housing may contain struts 68 ,to the specific embodiment herein illustrated and described, but may be used in other ways without departingfrom its spiritas defined by the following claim.

I claim:

[casing members each having a semi-spherical cavity porng boss 71, which in turn carries the shaft72. WA

1g 74 may be inserted between the shaft andrinner ter of'the boss. As will be observed from FIG- 6, rotation of shaft 72 which rotates ball 56 -toa :ermined angle positions passages of the ball out of .unication with ports 70 formed in the housing and portions of the spherical surface of the ball over pening to effect the shutoff function. Thus, it will.

ted that between every interconnecting position, will be a shutoff position; While FIGURES 6 and strate a two-position, four-ported valve, and FIG- 3 discloses three-position, four-ported valves, it is understood and obvious to one skilledin-the art 1e number of ports andpositions that the valves may n, and therefore the actual route of the passages the ball, will be determined by the particular appli' 16 I l for whichthe valve is intended to be used. a ball type valve is particularly employed because'it s the advantage of being relatively simple, imposes "m' loading on the seals producing a high "efiective )fsealing, and manufacturing, and assembling are lerably facilitated. f V V j 7 .at has been shown by this invention is a reliable, low ,cost, and compact multi-position, multi- 1 valve which is characterized as exhibiting high g characteristics in both vacuum and pressure ap-.

tion mating to define a spherical cavity portion, said casin'g members when assembled defining a" parting plane extending diagonally through the housing, I

(a) a ball type member rotatably mounted in said spherical cavity portion, a

(1) said ball type member including a'hub, a generally partially spherically contoured rim and web-like members supporting said rim to aid hub, 11(2) said web-like members havingpassages terminating in said rim, v V e (b) a shaft carried by said ball projecting through an opening formed between said casing; members, (c) circular seat members each having an opening coextensive'with said ports, and having a complemen-' tary partially spherically shaped recess adapted to engage the spherically contoured rim,

(1) said contoured rim' adjacent each of said 7 References Cited by the Examiner UNITED. STATES PATENTS 715,113 12/02 Mitchell 251315 XR 1,299,586 4/19 Leibing 2513l5 XR 1,327,984 '1/20. Campbell 251-315 4 2,475,702 7/49 Funke 137625.47 XR 2,663,538 12/53 Bacchi 251315'XR 2,698,731: 1/55 Koehler 25l172 2,905,197 9/59 James V '137- 625.47

2,919,886 1/60l Hurst 25l -3l5 XR 3,101,752 8/63 'Martin 137625.23 XR ISADOR WEIL, Examiner. 

